When you are charged with a DWI in Arkansas there are two things are happening: your driver’s license is being administratively suspended and you are being charged with a crime. This brief article deals with the driver’s license suspension.
When you are charged with a DWI, the arresting officer will take your driver’s license and give you a temporary paper license good for thirty days. At the end of the thirty days your driver’s license will be automatically suspended. Until the end of the thirty day period you can drive without any restrictions.
Hearing
The officer will also give you another paper that you must send into the State within seven days to request a hearing to contest the suspension of your license or to be eligible for an ignition interlock restricted driver’s license during the suspension period. The chance of prevailing and getting your driver’s license back at an administrative hearing is probably less than a tenth of a percent, but the hearing officer almost always will grant you an interlock restricted license on a DWI-First Offense. For a list of Arkansas DWI penalties and driver’s license suspension periods see my website.
Usually the hearing officer will grant you the interlock restricted license even if you do not send the paper in within the seven days, but they are not required to, so it is a good idea to make sure that the paperwork is forwarded to Little Rock within the seven days. I always fax paper to Little Rock so that I will have a proof of receipt.
Getting an Attorney to Save Your License
If you hire an attorney within the seven days, he or she can waive your appearance at the hearing and obtain the interlock restricted license for you. It may be of little consequence, but waiving your appearance at least allows you stay at work and not miss another day because of the DWI arrest. If after the hearing I think there is a good argument that you should not have had your license suspended we can pay a $185.00 filing fee and appeal the suspension to the Circuit Court and an actual judge will decide whether to return your license to you or leave you with the restricted license.
The judge will determine whether the police officer had “reasonable cause to believe you were driving while intoxicated” at the time of your arrest. Note that “reasonable cause” is less than “beyond a reasonable doubt which is the standard in your criminal case and that the outcome of this appeal has nothing to do with your criminal charge. I would guess that about ten percent of the suspensions appealed to Circuit Court result in the return of a license suspended by a hearing officer.
Ignition Interlock
If the hearing officer grants you an interlock restricted driver’s license you will receive a document called and interlock order which authorizes an interlock company to install the interlock in your automobile. After installation of the interlock, the company will give you a receipt showing the installation, and you can go to the driver control office where they will issue you the actual restricted interlock license.
The interlock will prevent you from starting your automobile with the slightest trace of alcohol in your system, will check for alcohol periodically while you are driving, and will record any incidents where it does find a trace of alcohol. The company is required to calibrate the interlock once every thirty days and report any traces of alcohol recorded to driver control who can suspend your license depending on the number and frequency of the recorded alcohol use. Note that driving an automobile without an interlock and interlock license while your license is suspended is another criminal offense and carries a minimum sentence of ten days in jail plus fines and costs.
Victim Impact Course
While your license is suspended you will also be required to attend a victim impact course hosted by MADD at a cost of $10.00 and an alcohol awareness course through a local mental health provider at a cost $150.00. You cannot get your license reinstated until you attend the courses and also pay a $150.00 reinstatement fee to driver control.
The only good news in all of this is that if you try the DWI case and prevail, your driver’s license will be automatically reinstated without paying all of the fees and costs. So you should seriously look at this as one of the factors in deciding whether to hire an attorney and contest your DWI.
